Do Must Read Books Exist?

So you're in the middle of a critique group. They've just finished reading your work. You think it's a compelling take on mob rule with supernatural elements that really questions the nature of perception and interpretations. You worked hard on getting the first person present tense voice to be deceptively simple while subtly showing the protagonist's bias. The readers are silent, pensive expression on their face. Then the vocal member of the group volunteers to start and says, "lots of Lovecraft vibes."

The group murmurs and nods in agreement. The speaker rattles off three short works by the author and talks about how the work made artful attempt to combine these themes while failing to resonate with the character since the protagonist wasn't evil enough to be compelling or sympathetic enough for us to route for them. But that last part glosses over you because your head is still trying to understand the references to Lovecraft's work, because you've never read H. P. Lovecraft.

If the average writer said, "I've never read Lovecraft." Most people would think twice about it but if you were a paranormal horror who'd never read Lovecraft, they might recommend that you do. And even if you don't the longer you spend writing the genre, the more people might make a comparison to his works or themes. You can nod and assume that you understand what they're trying to say because of his reputation, but you can never know for certain how your writing is original and how it's an unintentional copy of his work. By failing to be well read in the genre you're writing in, you as a writer are at a disadvantage, because you don't know what's been done before. You don't understand the conventions of the genre. If you're not well read, you might end up writing a genre swapped The Colour Out of Space.

So what? If you didn't read Lovecraft, it's not literary theft, it's just a coincidence. After all, "there's nothing new under the sun."

Contentious issues exist because there are directly opposed stances on the issue. When talking about required reading for writers those opposed points of view boil down to "you do you," and "you have to be well read." I didn't grow up reading. I hadn't devoured Tolkein, Jordan, Williams, le Guin, and McCaffery by the time I was twelve. I'd only known the story of Lord of the Rings from an almost folklore-ish perspective, as readers had retold the story to me second hand. As a human being, that's not that big of a deal, but for a person that writes adult fantasy novel, that gives people pause.

"Why do you write fantasy if you haven't read it?" Has been a common question posed to me. Others have been so bold as to judge me saying, "you shouldn't write fantasy if you haven't read it." I'm not a well read author. My love of fantasy comes from D&D and Final Fantasy not Brooks and Goodkind. For some, that makes me unqualified to write a story about dragon riding twenty-somethings. For others, they couldn't care less. But I think it's important to note that writers are held up to a different standard.

There are a LOT of books out there. Even if you consider the "classics," I'd be hard pressed to make a list of twenty must read books. I'd miss books that shaped genres, impacted young minds, and influenced the authors that followed. Surely, all writers, nay readers, nay human beings should enjoy the works of Salinger, Angelou, and Shakespeare. But what of Austin, Twainn, or Shelley? I could up the number of must read authors to 100 and still miss some giants of the language. I could restrict the time of publication to pre-1950 and still have a enough on my TBR to keep my attention for the next ten years. So how do we even begin to construct a must read list for an author of a particular genre?

As authors of the modern age, we're not writing against the authors of the 1950s. Constructing a satirical takedown of Shakespearean tropes is all well and good, but it will likely fall flat for anyone who doesn't read his plays for leisure. If you wrote a parody of Harry Potter, Twilight, or Hunger Games, you might think yourself clever, but those books ended in 07, 08, and 09 respectively. Audiences have had ten years to move on. The need to be topical is a daunting task for any writer as it can take three years to finish a novel for some and much MUCH longer for others. Since being topical is so elusive, a writer might be tempted to do their own thing and hope that readers respond well, but they're taking a greater risk than they think. Black Notice, Have A Little Faith, and The Silent Patient might not be books that mean anything to you, but they were all best sellers and they're all ten years apart from each other. Each book is intentionally or unintentionally a sign of changing times and preferences in literary styles. Writing to theme hasn't been a selling point for some time but plotting has likewise fallen out of favor for character. Your book series that's trying to establish an iconic hero like James Bond of Sherlock Holmes might not gather any interest at all, but if you're writing it from the perspective of someone who's likewise tired of modern character-centric stories you might be able to hit the right tone to break through conventions.

There are benefits to reading modern novels, specifically best sellers and debut novels. They give us some idea of what stories are successful and what kind of stories agents and publishers are willing to take risk to support. But it isn't enough to read the stories of today because we can miss out on the larger literary context that those stories entered into. Are books in the process of challenging conventions or are they working to establish a new norm? Are they stagnating by leaning too hard are on safe bets or going too extreme by backing experimental works that will only successfully grab a reader's attention once? There are no easy answers to these questions and they require a great deal incite and experience within a genre to answer.

If you're starting to feel overwhelmed and hopeless than you're beginning to empathize with the garbage fire that is my brain. When I finish reading a book all of these facts and more flood my thoughts. Do I need to read Ember? Is A Court of Thornes and Roses too old to read? Should I be reading more adult novels like Gentleman's Bastards or work on skewing my writing younger to follow the market? There aren't easy answers to these questions because so much of it is about personal preference, maintaining my mental health, and following my inspiration.

I didn't start writing knowing that I was going to primarily be a fantasy author. I've finished eight novels and attempted close to forty and time and time again my work came back to writing classic fantasy. Whether my stories had elves, dragons, swords, spells, or a combination of those things I never really get tired of it. Knowing that I love fantasy is a great step forward for my writing because it means I can focus my work. It means that I have enough enthusiasm to finish my eight book fantasy series, Dragonguard. I didn't know if I had the interest to stick with my urban fantasy series, or my superhero tales, or my paranormal horror chronicle, but I don't have that doubt about Dragonguard.

But I have to ask the question, am I even qualified to write in the genre? My twenty years of writing experience haven't taught me about the pitfalls and cliches of fantasy novels. Reading novels informs reader expectation in a way that writing doesn't. I've gotten better at finding a balance of emotion and action while integrating exposition dynamically into my work but I don't know if readers want to see dragon riders largely fighting without the use of magic? I don't know if a character driven story in the middle of a civil war is more interesting than a story about a chosen one over powering hordes of villains. I don't have a lifetime of reading the fantasy novels of today to inform my approach as such I don't know if anyone's interested in reading a book like mine.

Yeah, I know. "Can we make this general interest please?" My struggles aren't unique. Believe it or not, a lot of modern writers aren't coming from a reading background. They came into writing because they have a love of stories from a variety of mediums and that love of stories is what drives them to put words to the page. For writers like me, compiling a "must read" list can form an important bridge for us to understand our audience. Because we didn't grow up reading a book a week, we grew up reading maybe two books a year and now we're trying to sell books in a market full of competition.

So I've hammered home the point that actively reading successful books in our genre is a vital part of improving our craft and marketing to our audience, but what about the other side of the argument? No one needs to read anything. And more importantly reading should be for personal enjoyment and not a way to add to a long list of authors in an attempt to increase ones credibility. I can't really argue with that.

Everytime I've tried to read a popular YA fantasy novel, I've found it hard to engage with the plot, setting, or even the characters. Something about their snappy haughty attitude always feels forced to me but that's a rant for another time. The point is that I didn't enjoy reading these popular books. While trying to go through the motion of internalizing character beats and the cadence of the prose, I was spending half my time groaning, rolling my eyes, and contemplating my complete failure of writing in a modern style. And this isn't just a jab at YA. I've had the same negative reactions while reading modern adult fantasy that no one recommended to me. When I read for research, it's usually a chore, and it doesn't really inspire me to write better. If anything, it just makes me throw my hands up in frustration because I don't get the appeal.

Books that I've read for my enjoyment have helped me improve my writing. My favorite book I read in 2019 was an urban coming of age story, Hot Girl by Dream Jordan. Reading it caused me to take a long hard look at my use of voice in my work that I think ultimately improved my prose. The strongest influence to my writing was Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin because it got me to finally stop sacrificing brevity at the altar of "Show Not Tell." Genre and improvement aside, I enjoyed those stories and the characters and themes stick with me. You'd think with anecdotal evidence like that I wouldn't care about being well read in adult fantasy, but I still do.

"You're not a real reader unless you read a book a month." or "You're not a real reader unless you read everyday." or "If you've only read Tolkein and GRRM then you're not a fantasy reader."

These are the lies that elitists tell themselves and others. It's an attempt to gatekeep the cultural group of readers or fantasy readers and the requirements for inclusion will always evolve to leave out undesirable elements. Maybe they don't want to be associated with different kind of readers. Maybe they want to be able to talk to other readers without having to pause to explain the plot or end the conversational entire out of a deep fear of spoilers. Maybe they just don't want to talk to me. These kind of phrases are elitism pure and simple but they work on me.

So moving away from my personal bias and failings we return to the core question: Do Must Read Books exist? I think they do. But they exist within a group of friends or a discord server or facebook group devoted to reading. There's a reason Oprah's Book Club was so effective at selling books, it created a small list of books that could unite readers. As much as reading can be enjoyable by itself, talking about books can give an even great high. I loathed reading A Song of Ice and Fire. I think GRRM's prose is full of narrative failings overshadowed by symbolism, theme, and world building, but talking about the books gives me a high well worth the pain of reading about Dorne.

I want to connect with fantasy readers, not because I want to trick them into reading my book, but because I feel like I missed out something. I love fantasy enough to finish four novels, but growing up I didn't read a single one. I tried books that were either too old for me or I didn't own. I want to know the fantasy books that people love so that I can connect with people who love fantasy as much as I do. Because I can't keep bitching about Game of Thrones imploding after season five.